Sports

[Conor Mallonn | WOUB Public Media]

What went wrong for Ohio Men’s Basketball in 24-25?

By: Grant Kiefer
Posted on: Thursday, March 13, 2025

CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOUB) — The 24-25 season was perhaps the most-anticipated season for Ohio Men’s Basketball in the entirety of the Jeff Boals era. The Bobcats were the preseason favorites to win the MAC and racked up individual preseason honors left and right. It was rightfully deserved–Ohio lost just two seniors from the 23-24 season, added two high-impact transfers in Jackson Paveletzke and Vic Searls, and headlined its freshman class with 3-star recruit Elijah Elliott. However, the Bobcats may have just completed their most disappointing season under Boals, finishing 16-16 and exiting in the MAC quarterfinals for the first time in the Boals era. A lot of factors impacted the most drama-filled season in recent memory and were ultimately too much to overcome.

Jeff Boals celebrating Ohio’s performance against Kent State. [HG Biggs | WOUB Public Media]

Injuries

The injury bug is a scary thing–it can hit any team at any time. Ohio was no stranger to it this season, as only three players played in all 32 games this season (Paveletzke, Searls, and Ajay Sheldon). The only starter to start every game was Paveletzke. Everyone else missed at least one game, while Shereef Mitchell, AJ Brown, AJ Clayton, and Aidan Hadaway missed at least three games this season. Boals reflected on the fact that the team never truly got the chance to gel together, “I told (the team) after the game, the one regret I had about coaching this team was that we were only together for nine games.”

There were eight full games in the 24-25 season that Ohio was completely healthy for, as the presumed ninth game Boals alluded to was against Texas State in Myrtle Beach, where Shereef Mitchell returned from injury but reaggravated it shortly after. However, the results of those eight games? You can be the judge.

Nov. 4, at James Madison: Loss, 88-78

Nov. 9, vs. UNC Asheville: Win, 82-76

Dec. 18, vs. Austin Peay: Win, 78-58

Dec. 30, vs Muskingum: Win, 103-52

Jan. 4, at Central Michigan: Win, 57-55

Jan. 7, at Buffalo: Win, 88-79

Jan. 11, vs. Northern Illinois: Win, 108-70

Jan. 14, vs. Ball State: Win, 86-71

That was it for games that the Bobcats got to fully play together. Ohio was 4-0 in MAC play entering a pivotal game at Akron on Jan. 17, and everything seemingly went downhill from there. Aidan Hadaway went down with an ankle injury in the second half of that game that required surgery and forced him to miss nearly two months. The Bobcats never truly recovered from that, as it showed just how impactful Hadaway’s leadership and energy were to this team. Since the loss to Akron, Ohio went 6-10 the rest of the way.

Road Struggles

Home-court advantage is more apparent in college basketball than in any sport on the planet. The Convocation Center has proved to be kind to Ohio, as the Bobcats finished the year at 12-3 in the venue. On the flip side, Ohio won a measly four games away from Athens all season. Who it beat wasn’t the most impressive either–vs. Portland (201st NET, neutral at Myrtle Beach), at Central Michigan (218th NET), at Buffalo (341st NET), and at Bowling Green (287th NET). Again, road wins are tough to come by, it’s a known fact in the sport, but it hurt the Bobcats a lot. Could it have been a mental block? Were the environments that hard on the Bobcats? Through various media availabilities throughout the season, there were no official comments on why the road struggles were of this magnitude.

Jackson Paveletzke directing the Ohio offense in a loss to Kent State. [Reece Merkel | WOUB Public Media]

Ohio’s road record was the third worst in the conference, only ahead of Northern Illinois and Buffalo, both of whom didn’t make the MAC tournament. Boals’ best teams have found ways to win on the road, and next year’s will have to steal a couple of games away from home to have a chance in March.

Defense

If you’ve watched any Ohio games this year, you know its defense has been a struggle for the majority of the season. The Bobcats rank 227th in defensive efficiency on KenPom in the entire country. Ohio allowed over 75 points in 18 of its 32 games this season, and its record in those games was 5-13. On the other hand, the Bobcats are 11-3 in games they allowed 75 points or less. Ohio was an outstanding offensive team all season long, ranking 191st in offensive efficiency on KenPom and 44th in tempo, meaning the Bobcats were flying up and down the floor, trying to score points at will.

Ohio’s defense was a problem in the 23-24 season as well. While its 190th-ranked defense on KenPom last season is a little better than this season’s, not much was done from the returning group to improve on that end of the floor. The good news is defense can be taught and Ohio showed strides on defense this season. As previously mentioned, an 11-3 record in games allowing less than 75 points is pretty stellar. There’s hope in that department regarding next year’s team.

Luck

Every great team gets a little bit lucky, right? Well, Ohio was on the opposite end of that spectrum for the majority of the season. While teams are bound to be on the short end of the stick, the Bobcats were amongst the teams hurt the most by bad luck. Ohio ranked 326th in KenPom’s luck rating. No doubt, the Bobcats were hurt by late-game heroics from other teams and poor officiating at the end of games.

There are plenty of examples that come to mind, but Middle Tennessee State in the opening game of the Myrtle Beach Invitational comes to mind as the first instance. Ohio led by three with 14 seconds to go but opted not to foul to force Middle Tennessee to shoot just two free throws. The Blue Raiders then went down the floor and hit a game-tying three to force overtime and eventually won.

Ohio players reacting to a foul called at the end of regulation in the MAC Tournament QF vs Toledo. [Conor Mallonn | WOUB Public Media]

There weren’t many examples of this during the nonconference slate for Ohio, but MAC play was wildly unlucky. Starting with the game at Miami (OH) on Feb. 1, the Bobcats came back from down 14 points with eight minutes to go. Paveletzke had a wide-open layup in the final seconds to potentially force overtime and missed it. After the game, Boals claimed that Paveletzke was fouled on that particular play. Nearly two weeks later at Kent State, Ohio yet again came back and had the lead late, before squandering it and falling behind in the final minute. There was a blatant missed blocking foul while Paveletzke was bringing the ball up the floor, which allowed Kent State to go down the other end and go up by two possessions. After miraculously bringing it back to within one possession, Mitchell missed the potential game-winning three-pointer.

Perhaps the unluckiest instance of all was on the biggest stage of any game the Bobcats played in this season. Toledo was inbounding the ball down by one point at the end of regulation with four seconds to go in the MAC quarterfinal. The officiating crew missed a blatant traveling violation against Toledo on the baseline, which would’ve given Ohio the ball and almost certainly won the game. “I think we all saw (the travel). I mean, every fan saw it. The ending was the ending, and, obviously, I didn’t agree with it, but it was a big call at that moment,” Boals said.

At the end of the day, there’s a variety of reasons why Ohio didn’t live up to its expectations this season. The good news is this is a very talented roster and coaching staff that won’t be complacent after a season like this. With just three seniors graduating, albeit three impactful seniors, there’s plenty of experience returning to Athens next season for what should be an extremely hungry group.